How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’re probably familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are presenting or explaining complex data.

Using graphs and charts is great for breaking up long or difficult text, and making statistical data and information much simpler to understand.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, trends or comparisons quickly, then graphs and charts allow you to present information in an intelligent and meaningful way that can be easily understood.

Graphs and charts help you present complex information so people can more easily understand it!

If you need to learn how to present information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create and add great-looking and interactive charts and graphs to your WP pages that:

• Your web visitors can engage with
• Allows you to upload chart or graph data from your computer or a web-based source of data
• Is dynamically responsive for viewing on mobile devices

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison charts or trending graphs which contain information that is not going to change (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to display this data is to create the graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add your image to your content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to easily add dynamic bar charts and graphs to WordPress with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a plugin for WordPress users that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create colorful and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable content.

Visualizer

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or access and download the WordPress Visualizer plugin the WP plugin directory using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

The WordPress Visualizer plugin is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert colorful and interactive charts into your WordPress posts and pages in a few mouse clicks.

WordPress Visualizer uses Google Visualization API to render charts, which support cross-browser compatibility (adopting VML for older IE versions) and cross-platform portability to iOS and new Android releases, and are based on pure HTML5/SVG technology (adopting VML for old IE versions), so no additional plugins are required.

The plugin also contains a variety of built-in that are optimized to address your data visualization needs, including:

• Line chart
• Area chart
• Bar chart
• Column chart
• Pie chart
• Geo chart
• Gauge chart
• Candlestick chart
• Scatter chart

WordPress Visualizer is also flexible and customizable, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your site’s design. Various options are available for each chart that allow you to customize their look.

Additionally, charts are rendered using HTML5/SVG technology to provide cross-browser compatibility (including VML for older IE versions) and cross platform portability to iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Your blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without requiring the installation of any extra software.

Plugin Installation

Inside your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the dashboard menu …

In the Add Plugins page type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …

Locate Visualizer in the search results section and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

Once the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from the admin menu …

This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options …

After installing the plugin, the library contains no charts.

Your next step is to add add charts and graphs to your plugin library.

How To Configure The Visualizer Plugin

To add a graph or chart to the library, click on the Add New button …

You will see all of the built-in kinds of graphs and charts available.

Select the chart or graph type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …

The graph/chart type will open up in a lightbox.

The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains your data …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

• Your first row contains your column headings.
• The second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, date, etc.)

The screenshot below shows how to format your data …

If you are not sure how to format your data CSV, simply study the sample that comes with the plugin.

Once you have completed this step, select your data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.

Upload CSV File From Computer

To upload a CSV file from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

Use the browser to locate and select your file and then click on ‘Open‘ …

The plugin imports your data and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously chosen …

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, go here:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

After importing your data, check that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file with the right data), and then click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have chosen, the plugin will display various customization settings and options …

The plugin gives you complete control of your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, such as:

• General Settings – Configure settings for the chart’s title, font styles, tooltip, and legend.
• Pie Settings – Create 3D pie charts, draw slices counterclockwise, set the text content displayed on the slice, create a “donut” pie chart, rotate the chart’s “start” angle and set the slice border color.
• Residue Settings – Set the ‘Visibility Threshold’ (the slice relative part, below which a slice will not show individually.), ‘Residual Slice Label’ (the label for the combination slice that holds all slices below slice visibility threshold, e.g. “Other”), and ‘Residue Slice Color’.
• Slice Settings – Customize the ‘Slice Offset’ (how far to separate the slice from the rest of the pie), and ‘Slice Color’.
• Layout & Chart Area – Configure the layout (total size of chart) including the width and height of the chart as a number of percentage, background color for the main area of the chart and the chart border width and color, and the placement and size of the chart area (where the chart itself is drawn, excluding axis and legends).

Once you’re happy with the way your graph or chart appears, click Create Chart …

Your new chart or graph will now be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …

Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to add charts and graphs to your WordPress posts and pages easily and quickly …

Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …

After adding a new element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, clone it, or delete it …

Plugin Usage

Once you’ve created a new element and added it to the Visualizer Library, it’s easy to add it to your content.

First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …

Next, place your mouse cursor where you would like to insert your visual element into your content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Find the chart or graph you want to insert into your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This will add a shortcode for the element into your content …

After you have finished adding the item, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …

After your post/page has been published, click ‘View post’ to see the result …

The chart will show in the content …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive elements for mobile screens …

As you can see, Visualizer allows you to add and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can edit your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This is one of the great benefits of using the Visualizer plugin if you’re working with dynamic graph data in WordPress.

The developers of this plugin have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.

For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the site below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to create great-looking and dynamic bar charts and graphs in WordPress.

***

***